Crossness Pumping Station: Victorian gem in London
Crossness Pumping Station is a Victorian gem in London.
It's a masterpiece of engineering and architecture, described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "a Victorian cathedral of ironwork".
This hidden gem was built by Sir Joseph Bazalgette, to deal with London's sewage.
The pumping station was built in response to the 'Great Stink' of 1858 when the polluted Thames River emitted an unbearable odor, causing a health crisis in London.
London’s population grew rapidly in the first half of the 19th century, from roughly 1 million in 1800 to 2.5 million in 1850.
This caused numerous problems including, of course, with sewage.
The public disaster came about after commissioners were unable to reach an agreement regarding the city’s sewage systems.
This meant that the Thames became heavily polluted and, combined with the unusually warm weather that year, it created a putrid smell – a smell so bad that it almost drove MPs out of the Palace of Westminster.
The solution involved constructing a vast network of sewers and pumping stations, including the Crossness Pumping Station, to divert sewage away from the Thames.
The scheme involved 1,100 miles of street sewers feeding into 82 miles of main interconnecting sewers, with pumping stations located both sides of the River.
Crossness was officially opened on the 4th April 1865 by Edward, Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII).
The architectural gem featured a boiler house, beam engine house, valve house, fitting shop and workshops.
Rising above the pumping station was a 208-foot chimney.
It used four massive steam pumps to flush non-solid waste into the river at specific times that got the effluent out to sea much quicker.
The sewers pumped raw sewage east, away from the city centre, at the same time allowing clean water into the river.
The sewage was stored in a covered reservoir before being released on the ebb tide of the River Thames, which would eventually carry the sewage out to sea.
However, it took a disaster to make authorities realise that dumping raw untreated sewage into the Thames was a bad idea.
In 1878, the pleasure steamer Princess Alice collided with a coal barge off Tripcock Point, west of Woolwich.
The Princess Alice was carrying around 700 holidaymakers home from a day trip to the Kent seaside. Within minutes of the collision the Princess Alice sank.
Around 650 people died, many of them from breathing in toxic sewage waste as they tried to survive in the filthy water.
The water bubbled with raw detritus, giving out a stench strong enough to leave even the hardiest boatman gagging.
The Princess Alice disaster prompted authorities to develop a new system of dealing with sewage.
In this 'settlement and separation' approach, sewage settled in two large channels which separated solid from liquid waste.
Liquid waste was still dumped into the river but solid waste was carried in special Sludge Boats out to sea and dumped.
The first of these vessels – the SS Bazalgette – remained in service till 1998.
The interior of Crossness Pumping Station was decorated in massive amounts of elaborate ironwork, giving the otherwise vile industrial site a delicately Victorian feel and earning it the nickname, “The Cathedral on the Marsh.”
The intricate design elements, characterised by ornate ironwork and colourful decorative features, showcase the Victorian era’s penchant for combining functionality with artistic flair.
The Beam Engine House, a hallmark of the station, houses four enormous beam engines, each weighing over 50 tons.
These rotative beam engines are thought to be the largest remaining rotative beam engines in the world. Powered by coal, they were capable of pumping millions of gallons of sewage per day.
Over the next few decades, the pumping station was upgraded and enlarged to hold more boilers and triple expansion engines with reciprocating pumps.
The latter were replaced by diesel engines driving centrifugal pumps in 1947.
Crossness was decommissioned in the 1950s and the marvellous tower (that wouldn’t look out of place in an Italian city) was demolished.
The whole site fell into disrepair, however, an army of volunteers helped look after the engines (which were never dismantled).
Fortunately, funds from both Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage mean today you can still see one of these huge beasts – ‘The Prince Consort’ – pump away happily.
It’s now recognised as a Grade 1 Listed industrial heritage site and a masterpiece of 19th-century engineering, architecture, and design.
Today, Crossness is occasionally open to the public at special open days or Open House London, with an accompanying ‘Great Stink’ exhibition telling the story of London’s sewer system.
It’s also used as a film or television location, such as Sherlock Holmes (2009), Victor Frankenstein (2015) and The Crimson Petal And The White (2011).
The reviews on TripAdvisor are excellent.
A recent visitor said: “You don't need to have a particular interest in steam engines or former sewage works to find this a fascinating place to visit.
”Amazing Victorian architecture and a triple expansion beam engine in steam when we visited. If the car park is full it can be quite a walk from parking at the side of the road but offset by taking the 2 foot gauge RANG railway up to the site.”
Another added: “Just had a brilliant visit to Crossness. Luck to see the engine "Prince consort" working as it was being tested following repairs.
”Staff were friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. The visit started with a talk about the issues around pollution and the dirty river Thames, which put everything in context.”
Be prepared to wear a hard hat and comfortable shoes for your visit!
It is hard to overstate just how incredible the engine house is.
It was 'just' a sewage pumping facility, but the extraordinary architecture is worthy of a state building or a cathedral.
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